In the days that followed his deal with Jonghyun, Jinki started to notice a positive shift in Taemin's attitude. Before the two bodyguards had entered their lives, Taemin had become quiet, and even rolled his eyes in blatand disregard when his manager or Jinki spoke. Jinki ignored it, of course, since he believed he deserved the treatment, but the manager kept scolding the younger Lee and even the elder for not correcting his behavior.

Jinki never argued back, of course, since it was his fault after all, but it seemed that all Taemin needed was someone to spend time with to revert back into the bright young man Jinki knew him to be. For that, he was both glad for the Kims' arrival in their lives, and envious. There was a point in time where the only person Taemin would be bright around was his older brother; but that was years ago, when he didn't hate his brother's existence.

He could never voice his envy, however, because he deserved to be hated by Taemin, but he sometimes found himself being hurt when the younger doted on the bodyguards and all but ignored his brother's presense. That is, until the day the elder came stumbling home with a bloody nose.

Jinki's manager was with him and scolding him for leaving Jonghyun behind again, because all of that would have been avoided if Jinki let his bodyguard actually do his job, but Jinki waved him off and headed for the kitchen to find an ice pack.

The younger three had been watching a movie of some sort in the living room when he came in, and it took only a moment of the mentioning of bodyguard for Jonghyun to stand up and slowly make his way to the kitchen with the other two following after him.

"What happened?" Kibum's eyes were focused on the hand Jinki was cupping around his nose, but the elder chose not to answer him and took an ice pack from the freezer.

"Do you want me to tell them, then?" Jinki's manager was still furious, because the elder Lee was always adamant about doing things on his own, as if he had no one to lean on. Jinki merely ignored him and grabbed a towel to wrap around the ice pack, then quickly pressing it against his nose and washing his bloodied hands in the sink.

Before he knew what was happening, Taemin walked forward and gently pulled on his brother's arm, leading them all back into the living room and forcing Jinki to sit on the reclining chair. Jinki would have protested, but he was guilty in savoring the act of kindness Taemin showed to him because it's been just too long.

"What happened, hyung?" Taemin's voice was gentle as he spoke, and Jinki guessed it was because he hadn't realized he was talking to the elder with such kindness. Jinki in return just made sure his gaze was on the ceiling, because he hated to be treated like a weak child.

"What happened?!" His manager was definitely pacing as he spoke, Jinki knew his manager too well to miss that, and he lowered his head to watch as the manager paced the length of the room, "This idiot chased after a male who stole a woman's purse!"

"I don't see anything wrong with helping someone." Jinki hummed as he finally stood up and trailed off to the stairs that led to his bedroom, "I got the purse back."

"There is something wrong when you're an idol, Jinki!" His manager continued to scold, but when he realized Jinki was done with talking about the incident, he took a deep breath and left the house in a hurry, mumbling something about Jinki being the death of him.

As soon as Jinki landed on the top stair, he winced at the soreness of the rest of his body, his foot limping beside him as he trudged into his bedroom. The thief didn't seem to care that he was fighting against an idol of all people and just kept swinging at Jinki however he could. Jinki was sure his ankle was swollen by now, but he was far too exhausted to even think about taking care of himself and threw himself right onto the bed, wincing when he realized that doing so was only making his body ache that much more.

He got off his bed slowly and changed into shorts and a tee-shirt to inspect the damage done to his body, and indeed; his ankle was swelling and there were a few cuts lining up his frame. With a sigh he carefully laid down on his bed again and shut his eyes with the thought that sleep might make the pain go away. It obviously did nothing to ease his pain, and his nose was still streaming fresh blood, but he didn't want to deal with any of it. Thankfully, it seemed he didn't have to deal with it as his door opened without any warning, and Jinki weakly lifted his head to see Taemin gaping back at his now uncovered wounds.

"Hyung!" Taemin was a lot more worried about Jinki's wounds than the elder himself, and disappeared just as quickly as he got there. Jinki dropped his head as soon as his brother left his line of sight, though it wasn't long before another pair of footsteps padded into his room. 

"He did quite a number on you, didn't he?" It was Jonghyun speaking, and he sounded more amused than worried as he sat down on the elder's bed. 

"Oh shut up." Jinki groaned out, hoping that the younger male would leave him alone to mope in peace, yet Jonghyun only moved in order to pull Jinki into a sitting position leaning against his frame. Jinki wanted to glare at him, of course, but he found that Jonghyun was warm and oddly comforting as they waited in silence for Taemin to return.

"I hope you know that this means I'll be going with you everywhere from now on." Jonghyun's voice was void of amusement, and Jinki could only sigh because he hated it when Jonghyun became serious like that. Jonghyun suited smiles and cheesy jokes instead.

"Even to the bathroom?" Jinki was trying to lighten the mood even though his eyes were drooping shut again, and he could feel the younger male's skin vibrate in laughter.

"If I have to." Jonghyun grinned back, and Jinki forced himself not to roll his eyes at the answer. Jonghyun was far too witty for his own good.

Finally, Taemin came padding back into the room with Kibum following after him. In Kibum's arms was a first aid kit that Jinki didn't even know they had, and he could only stare on in silence as Kibum worked to patch him up.

"Does it hurt?" Taemin asked hesitantly, and though Jinki wanted to smile up at him, Kibum had taken a hold of his aching foot and turned it just slightly, causing Jinki to verbally hiss at the pain.

"It's not sprained but that definitely will stay a while." Kibum announced, grabbing a bandage to wrap around his foot.

Jinki's eyes were still on Taemin's, though, because the softness in the younger's eyes almost felt foreign to him, because it was so long ago that he felt that kind of softness from the younger. It took a while for Taemin to realize it himself, of course, but he never stopped gazing at his elder brother in worry.

"I'll be fine." Jinki slowly pulled himself away from Jonghyun's grip and laid down properly with his blanket tucked around him, "I just need to get some sleep now."

Kibum simply shrugged and walked out of the room, and after giving Jinki one last hesitant glance, Taemin followed him out. Jonghyun didn't leave the room, surprisingly, and sat in the corner of the room where a chair sat. Jinki furrowed his eyebrows at the male and gestured to the door with his head, but Jonghyun crossed his arms and grinned back at him defiantly.

"I told you, I'll be with you from now on." Jonghyun's words made Jinki stare at him for a moment in confusion because that was the first time anyone had ever said anything even remotely similar to that, but Jinki let out a snort and closed his eyes.

"Suit yourself." That was the only thing he said and then, Jinki drifted off to sleep. When he woke up a few hours later, his body was feeling a little better and he slowly sat up to stretch his arms when something stood out from the corner of his eye. When he glanced over at Jonghyun, he noticed that the younger was leaning back in his chair with his head tilted upward and his eyes shut. Jinki watched on in amusement for a while before he stood up and grabbed a thin sheet to cover the younger with, "All he ever does when he's supposed to be guarding me is sleep."

Jinki slowly covered the male with the blanket and then made his way to his studio. Jonghyun would most likely join him there after waking up anyway, so Jinki didn't worry about waking him up to let him know where he'd gone. True to his expectations, not even twenty minutes had passed when Jonghyun knocked on the door to the studio, hearing the melody from down the hall. He walked in just as Jinki paused the track and gave Jinki an expressionless stare that had Jinki sighing loudly.

"You shouldn't have been sleeping, if you wanted to watch me so desperately." Jinki muttered simply and then had his full attention back on the track he was currently editing.

Suddenly, his chair was pulled away from the computer, and Jinki stared up at Jonghyun who just stared back blankly, "You just lost a large amount of blood, if you don't remember. You should be eating and drinking to get that back, not working on music." Jinki was about to turn back, but then Jonghyun spoke again and Jinki could just hear his smirk as he did, "Unless you want me to carry you down the stairs, I'd suggest for you to get up."

Jinki knew he was being serious, so he stood up without another disagreement and left the room with the smirking bodyguard trailing after him all the way to the kitchen. To his further surprise, he learned that both Kibum and Taemin were already in the kitchen and cooking something that potentially could be what they were going to eat for dinner that night. Jinki almost smiled as he watched because Taemin was smiling as they cooked, and it's surely been a long time since the elder has seen that kind of smile on Taemin. 

Kibum was the first to glance behind them, and after giving a stiff nod to Jonghyun, his attention focused onto Jinki, "Taemin said we should cook you dinner by the time you woke up."

The tips of Taemin's ears pinked, and Jinki was sure his own ears did the same, but he was caught by surprise as Taemin had never shown interest in cooking for him before. Jinki only hummed in response and went over to the coffee pot to reluctantly make himself a cup of decaf coffee. He wasn't a fan of decaf, but if that was the only kind of coffee he was allowed to have, then he'd have to drink it.

They ended up eating dinner together, all four of them, and Jinki got to see firsthand, how important Jonghyun and Kibum actually were to Taemin. It made him smile, because he finally did something right to make Taemin smile, and even though he was sore, he was able to take part in it just once.

Except that while they ate, Jinki noticed that Jonghyun had been silent, and every time he looked, his bodyguard was looking right back at him with gentle eyes that had his own eyebrows raise in confusion. Jonghyun merely chuckled and turned away each time.